NO STATE DICTATION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 31, 6 February 1941, Page 11

NO STATE DICTATION

NATIONAL PARTY'S PROMISE

ADDRESS BY MR. HOLLAND

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PALMERSTON N., This Day. Remarking that the only success the present Government had achieved had been the destruction of the success of others, the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. S. G. Holland) assured about 1000 people who listened to him in the Opera House last night that the National Party's success would be measured in terms of the; number of people who would be able to make their own decisions wiihout- let or hindrance from a dictatorial Government. "We seek to become the Government because we are confident, indeed, we are certain, that under a system of private enterprise, with the right of the people to own. their own homes, their own farms and factories, the people'will enjoy not only a higher standard, of living, but also a greater sense of personal happiness, prosperity, and contentment," Mr. Holland said. "We believe that New Zealanders do better, they work harder, they are happiest and better off when they are most free from State dictation and interference. ' ■ ' "We believe in the enterprise system, under which thousands of farms and businesses and tens of thousands of workers are constantly striving to produce more goods and services of better quality for human use or consumption. We believe in the competitive system and we believe in incentive as an urge to efficiency to progress. "New Zealand has made phenomenal progress under private ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange, but I sometimes wonder how much of the progress would have been accomplished if our pioneers had been surrounded with today's rules and regulations and the import restrictions, the licensing system, the mass of permits for this and that, the millions of forms that must be filled in, and the army of inspectors to be maintained. SPIRIT OF PIONEERS. "I know what the pioneers would have done with a Government that clogged up progress.in that way, and I confidently believe that the people will catch something of the spirit of the pioneers at the next election and vote accordingly. . "Much has been said and written on living standards, but the general public are now beginning to realise that money, itself, does not mean goods and has no value in itself," Mr. Holland said. "The standard of living consists of the goods and services we need in our everyday lives. What we get out of life depends on what we put into life, and so it is with the standard of living. What goods and services we use and consume depend entirely on what goods and services are first produced. "All production comes from human labour and no manipulation of the monetary system will lessen the amount of labour required to produce goods. Obviously, if we take some 40,000 to 50,000 men out of production, then we cannot expect to have the same amount of goods available for our use and. consumption. The obvious course is to work longer and produce more. "I want to say, with all the emphasis at ray command, that the National Party is determined to stand 100 per cent, behind New Zealand's war effort. There is nothing we can do that we will not do. There is no service we can render that will be withh2ld, but it is not subversive to state that there is much more that New Zealand can still do. "I believe Mr. Fraser is quite in earnest when he says that nothing else matters but winning the war, but it is equally true that his colleagues in Cabinet are at the same time going for their lives socialising. New Zealand as fast as they possibly can."